In the December 2012 issue of Science, American Forests Science Advisory Board member Dr. Jerry F. Franklin published an ecological study, “Global Decline in Large Old Trees,” with his colleagues Dr. David Lindenmayer and Dr. William Laurance. Dr. Franklin kindly sat down with American Forests staff members to discuss the study and the importance of big, old trees.

What exactly is a big, old tree? “Each forest has its own definition of what is large and what is old,” Dr. Franklin explains, “but we’re generally talking about trees that are over 150 years of age, and often, we’re talking about trees that are many centuries old.” And it’s this age, more than their size, that makes these trees so vital to the forests they call home.

“Big, old trees are not simply enlarged versions of young trees,” says Dr. Franklin. He says that this is the key point of the research and paper: to educate forest managers and the public on the impact that old trees have on an ecosystem’s health. One of these major impacts is on wildlife.

“Big, old trees have suffered the slings and arrows of climate, insects and diseases, and so they typically have a lot of features like cavities, which are really important from the standpoint of wildlife.” Various animals can use these cavities as living spaces. Dr. Franklin describes the struggles his co-author, Dr. Lindenmayer, is observing in Australia, where old trees are declining and younger trees simply don’t have the cavities to support wildlife. Unlike in North America, where woodpeckers can help form cavities in younger trees, Australia does not have any cavity-making wildlife. Only time and wear-and-tear can create these niches in the country’s trees.

Because of big, old trees’ irreplaceable role in forest health, Dr. Franklin believes strongly that we need to be developing forest plans to create diverse-aged canopies throughout our forests. “I’m really trying to get everybody to understand that we really need all elements, all stages of successional development of forests on our federal forest landscapes,” he says.

Related to this is developing forest policy that recognizes the importance of not just saving, but restoring old-growth trees and forests. “In this country, we really don’t have forest management policies that call for either retaining or restoring or maintaining populations of big, old trees [such as the ponderosa pine forests of the Pacific Northwest],” Dr. Franklin relates. “Now, in various parts of the National Forest System, we don’t log them anymore. … We save some old-growth forests. … But we don’t have a policy that says we recognize that the big, old trees are a structural element of our forests that we want to retain and restore where we’ve lost it because it’s important to the completeness of these ecosystems.”

Redwoods. Credit: Hawkoffire/Flickr

What would such policy look like in action? “Where we’ve got them, we keep them,” advises Dr. Franklin. “Where we don’t have them, but we have intermediate-aged stands, we manage some of those stands or some of the trees within the stands in a way that’s going to lead to the development of large, old trees.” Dr. Franklin cautions, though, that this isn’t about creating huge stands of old-growth-only forests: “You really need all stages of successional development of forests in our federal forest landscapes. … We need to be thinking about the early stages of succession, as well as the old stages.”

Dr. Franklin explains that the first step toward protecting and restoring big, old trees is getting people to recognize their importance: “Big, old trees aren’t just objects of oddities and objects of interest. We need to have populations of big, old trees present in much our forest landscape in order to provide the kinds of habitat that we need for a lot of our wildlife.”

It sounds simple enough, but one thing that more than 100 years of forest policy and advocacy work has taught us is that nothing is easy when it comes to policy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fight worth having. Thank you to Dr. Franklin for taking the time to chat with us. To read the complete Science article, “Global Decline in Large Old Trees,” visit sciencemag.com.

Smokey Bear is turning 69 today, and I have reason to believe it may his best birthday party yet. Why? Because there will be a lot more hugs to go around!

Smokey is taking a less authoritarian approach toward educating people about wildfire prevention these days. Rather than disapproving looks and stern warnings, he’s opting for positive reinforcement — in the form of hugs.

So, here’s a big birthday bear hug for the lovable Smokey, still encouraging personal responsibility in the forest after all these years!

Just remember: Although he’s a bear, the Smokey we all know and love is a park ranger, not a wild animal. Do not attempt to hug any other bears.

With roughly 30 percent of Earth’s land surface categorized as forestland, it can be quite the project to estimate how these trees are interacting with the planet. How much carbon are they taking in? How much water are they using and releasing into the air? How much oxygen are the trees producing? These questions are easy to answer if you’re looking at one particular tree in a specific location. When scientists must estimate how a whole stand of trees is interacting with the environment, though, it becomes tricky, but some recent research may help with that.

As reported by Phys.org, researchers from the University of Arizona’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology have discovered that trees of different species often have similar infrastructure or branching systems despite their diverse outward appearances. Publishing their results in journal Ecology Letters, the scientists describe how they sampled various trees, coniferous and deciduous, with very different shapes — nine trees were researched in all — but the way in which the branches split is remarkably similar in all of the studied trees. In addition, they found that all of a trees branches combined equals the area of the trunk.

If this idea sounds familiar, it should. The observation that all trees share a similar branching pattern and have branches that when combined equal the size of the trunk was first suggested by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago, although theories why all trees share this universal design is still being debated and researched.

Young Tree Credit:Rosa Say

The implications of this new research are pretty significant according to the researchers, as it would allow one to measure just a few trees in order to determine the ecological function of the entire forest. Lead researcher Dr. Lisa Patrick Bentley tells Phys.org, “This theory can be used to scale the size of plants to their function, such as amount of photosynthesis, water loss and respiration, especially in light of climate change. If you were to look at an entire forest and wanted to know how much carbon this forest puts out, our study supports the idea that you might only have to look at the properties of a few trees, representing the smallest and the largest, to figure this out.”

Now, of course, there are outliers, with Dr. Bentley relating that some aspects of the new theory need to be modified to incorporate species variations. But the research is an intriguing step toward being able to more accurately and quickly calculate the work forests are doing on our behalf.

It’s a shocking statement, I know, but beyond old age, trees combat destructive forces on a daily basis: insect, disease, development and weather. All of these things can create devastating losses or damage to trees, but some people are turning these negatives into positives — artistic positives.

A custom sliding barn door made by Wood From the Hood from reclaimed wood felled by a North Minneapolis tornado. Credit: woodfromthehood.com

As reported by WCCO CBS 4 in Minnesota, a June thunderstorm toppled 3,000 trees in Minneapolis, a devastating blow to the city’s renowned urban forest, but what if these trees could find a new life? That’s the question Cindy and Rick Siewert asked themselves a few years ago when they had to cut down an ash tree in their yard. Thus, Wood From the Hood was born, a company specializing in using reclaimed wood to create “beautiful, high-quality wood products.” These products can range from furniture to cribbage boards; each item is unique and handcrafted from scratch, allowing the downed urban tree to find a new purpose. Rick tells WCCO, “It’s going to live on. It’s not going to contribute to the carbon footprint if we actually make something out of it.” Even better, it allows people to hold onto a special memory of a special tree: “There’s always a story behind the tree,” says Rick. The Siewerts aren’t the only ones finding new lives for trees, though.

Earlier this summer, in Davenport, Iowa, city arborist and forestry manager Chris Johnson transformed an eight-foot, downed limb from a cottonwood tree into a bench along one of the city’s recreational trials. The Quad-City Times reveals that this is just one example of Johnson’s wood utilization program. His crew makes downed trees into boards and benches to sell at a local farmers market and is also creating benches for some area bus stops. Johnson says that wood reutilization is “a growing trend, and it’s coming from the East. It stemmed from the emerald ash borer.” Speaking of tree-killing insects, a company in Montana, Bad Beetle, is turning a tragedy of losing 10,000 trees on the founder’s ranchland to mountain pine beetle into a unique opportunity: sustainable technology accessories.

A clock made from wood displaying the effects of the blue stain fungus. Credit: Jenny Lazebnik

We’ve talked a lot about the devastation being wrought across the Rockies by the mountain pine beetle, but one detail that hasn’t come up yet is how it’s really a fungus being carried by the beetles that ultimately kills the trees. The blue stain fungus (Grosmannia clavigera) travels along with the mountain pine beetle, and once in a tree, its spores spread throughout the tree, eventually blocking the tree from properly circulating nutrients. This, in turn, kills the tree. The evidence of the infestation, though, is eerily beautiful, as the fungus — true to its name — creates a blueish-silver tint to the infected wood. And artists and entrepreneurs throughout the Rockies are using this unique, dead wood to create anew. The aforementioned Bad Beetle? It’s making wood cases for Apple products like iPads. The History of Colorado Museum used blue stain wood for its ceiling and some benches, while in Canada, they’re using this “denim pine” for flooring, siding and furniture and even for the roof of the 2010 Winter Olympics Speed Skating Oval.

Ambrosia beetles of the Euwallacea genus bore into avocado trees to farm Fusarium fungi, which they use to feed their young. It’s well-known that these fungi can damage and kill the infested tree, but the new study draws attention to an even more concerning possibility. If an ambrosia beetle cultivates its kind of Fusarium fungus in a tree that another beetle is using to cultivate a different Fusarium variety, those fungi could cross and create new, more dangerous strands.

It’s certainly a concern, considering that the invasive ambrosia beetle is currently undergoing a population boom. “Over the past four or five years, ambrosia beetles seem to be really out of control,” says David Geiser, plant pathologist at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of the study in a Pennsylvania State University press release. That’s because the beetles are hitching rides on wood cargo pallets shipped around the world.

Adult Asian longhorned beetle. Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Wait a minute! This sounds familiar: It’s the same way the invasive Asian longhorned beetle (ALB), which is threatening northeastern forests and the maple industry, arrived from China. It’s also likely how the emerald ash borer (EAB) — which is decimating the Midwest’s ash trees as we speak — arrived here.

And don’t forget how pests like these got here in the first place. Transportation of invasive beetles on wood doesn’t only occur over oceans. It can also occur from campsite to campsite. Remember not to move firewood. Our avocados, ash trees and maple sweets could depend on it.

If you had told me two years ago when I started at American Forests that I would have a series on our soon-to-launch blog about marijuana, I definitely would have had a big laugh, but as it turns out, pot is no laughing matter when it comes to the health of forest ecosystems. While the federal debate over the legalization of marijuana continues to rage, an increasing number of reports are emerging about the harmful effects that the illegal cultivation of marijuana is wreaking on forest landscapes.

Chemicals and trash found at illegal marijuana grow site in California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Credit: USFS Region 5

A western fisher, a species being threatened by the use of rat poison for illegal marijuana farms. Credit: USDA

Since I filed my last report, it appears that the situation isn’t getting any better. Earlier this summer, The New York Times reported on the presence of poison in a number of different wildlife species in California — from a member of the weasel family to endangered spotted owls. The source: A rat poison, like d-Con, used to protect marijuana plants from wood rats. Then, last week, The Huffington Post discussed local California officials’ reluctance to enforce marijuana-growing laws out of safety concerns, as many of California’s illegal crops are under the control of Mexican cartel members.

But, before you dismiss this story as a California-only concern, it turns out that illegal marijuana farms are harming forests — and wildlife — around the globe. A recent story on MongaBay.com reveals that Nigeria is also struggling with the environmental impacts of marijuana farming. In a study of nine forest reserves by The Southwest/Niger Delta Forest Project, it was uncovered that 50 percent of the reserves’ deforestation from 2010 to 2012 was due to marijuana cultivation. Making matters worse, these reserves are home to the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, which is listed as endangered on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. So even though Nigeria and California are continents and worlds apart, the struggle to protect forest ecosystems from the harmful effects of marijuana crops is universal. And there is no easy solution.

Hopefully, continued focus on the problem will lead to tenable solutions and a balance between legal farming of a legalized crop and punishments for those illegally cultivating marijuana and harming the environment in the process.

American Forests meets with the Davey Resource Group, The Greening of Detroit and Friends of the Rouge. Credit: Amanda Tai/American Forests

Last week, Melinda Housholder and I, aka American Forests’ urban forest team, traveled to Detroit, Mich., the site of one of the Community ReLeaf 2013 projects. We had the opportunity to meet a lot of folks working on greening initiatives in Detroit and saw a lot of the city. It was a very interesting time to visit the city, being in the midst of its bankruptcy.

A few neighborhoods we drove past were well-maintained with beautifully landscaped traffic islands, but the majority of what we saw was abandoned houses and buildings with boarded-up windows. Many of the abandoned neighborhoods were only a short distance from Rouge Park, our Community ReLeaf site.

Detroit was a booming industrial city for the first half of the 20th century, with the founding of the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Rapid population growth made Detroit the fourth largest city in the U.S. with 1.8 million people in 1950. However, the city has recently seen a rapid economic and population decline. In 2010, Detroit’s population was at 700,000.

The city has also experienced environmental decline. Rouge Park is the only remaining forested area in Detroit. It’s home to the Rouge River, a variety of wildlife and native prairieland.

In order to better understand the urban forest assessment being conducted in Rouge Park as part of Community ReLeaf, we met with our Davey Resource Group team on the western border of the park. The guys gave a rundown of their data collection plan and walked us through the work they do. There are several measurements to take in each randomly selected 1/10 acre plot and for each individual tree. For the plots, they estimate tree canopy cover by looking at the open spaces, where we could see sky through the trees; ground cover; and shrubs. For each tree, they measure diameter at breast height (DBH), canopy cover, tree height, percent gaps in crown cover and several other specifics to get a detailed picture of each plot. It was interesting to see real data being collected that would be put into the assessment.

We also met with The Greening of Detroit and Friends of the Rouge to talk about the initiatives that are going on in the park and city overall. One of the interesting initiatives is The Greening of Detroit’s Green Corps program, which helps both the environment and youth in the city. Green Corps is a youth employment program designed for high school students living in the city. Teens travel around the city to maintain more than 100 The Greening of Detroit planting sites. Through this program, corps members learn urban forestry skills, sustainability skills and financial literacy skills that will help build their resumes. Friends of the Rouge also talked about several activities that go on in the park and how it’s an important environmental and social piece of the city. With an Olympic-sized pool, amphitheater, mountain bike trails and butterfly tours, Rouge Park certainly has a lot to offer a city looking to turn things around, and we’re excited to be working with the Davey Resource Group and local partners to help assess and restore Rouge Park for the citizens of Detroit.

The beetle was first found in the U.S. in 1996 and is thought to have been transported in wooden packing material from Asia. They are known to infest 13 different species of trees. The most threatened tree is the maple. This is problematic to those who rely on harvesting its syrup and local ecotourism for those who enjoy viewing their beautiful fall foliage. Other trees infected by these pests are poplars, birch, ash, mimosa, willows and elms.

Infographic from: http://asianlonghornedbeetle.com

When this beetle burrows into a tree, there is no saving it, as the beetle starves trees by disconnecting tree tissues that transport nutrients and water. The beetle has been found in various states throughout the country, including New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and Illinois, and many fear that if ALB is left unchecked, it could spread to more northeastern states and even Canada. There is good news, though, as two states — New Jersey and Illinois — have been able to completely eradicate the bug from their trees. The key to the success is in early detection of an infestation, which allows a tree to be removed before ALB can spread to the tree’s neighbors. That’s where Tree Check Month comes into play.

APHIS has declared August as Tree Check Month because it is when the beetles become most active, meaning you are most likely to spot them. The concept is simple: If you’re outdoors this August, take 10 minutes to look over your trees and make sure they are not being eaten by ALB — don’t worry the pest is harmless to people and pets.

What should you be looking for?

Asian Longhorned Beetle. Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Dime-sized exit holes

Shallow scars in the bark

Sawdust-like material on the ground or on branches

Dead branches

Sap seeping from wounds

Of course, the most obvious clue would be actually seeing the beetle. It is an inch and a half long with a black body with white spots on it. They have long antennas that are black and white and six legs that may be light blue. In addition to trees, the beetle can also be found on walls, outdoor furniture, cars, sidewalks and often are caught in pool filters.

Remember that one of the most common ways that invasive pests like ALB spread is by moving firewood, so only use local firewood and never take it with you.

Help us stop the spread of ALB by taking just 10 minutes to look over trees in your yard or favorite park. Together, we can rid our forests, lawns and parks of these unwanted pests.

Researchers at the University of Arizona and Yale University estimated the rate of evolution for 17 vertebrate groups — comprised of 540 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians — by looking at genetic data to determine when species in the past split off into other species. They found that species can adapt to an average temperature increase of one degree Celsius per one million years. Yet, global temperatures are expected to rise as much as four degrees Celsius in less than 100 years. As temperatures rise, wildlife will need to seek higher latitudes or higher ground to stay in temperatures and climates they’re adapted to. Species who are unable to make the move could face extinction.

Several recent studies on species expected to be extinct within 50 years illustrate the idea all too well. A study published last week in Nature Climate Change estimates that the Iberian lynx — believed to be the world’s rarest cat — will be extinct within 50 years, even if the world is able to meet carbon emissions reduction goals.

Jewel lizard. Credit: Mana von Unger

A very special group of lizards is in a similar bind according to a study in Global Ecology and Biogeography. Lizards of the Liolaemus genus, such as the colorful jewel lizard of Peru, have thrived in part thanks to the adaptation of giving live birth. This adaptation is believed to be the key to the lizards’ spread into colder climates. Ironically, the very adaptation that gave them success in the past may doom them in the future: The transition from eggs to live birth is an irreversible one. They now depend on colder climates for survival. Like the lynx, these lizards are predicted to disappear within the next 50 years.

News like this can be discouraging, but it’s also important to keep conservation successes in mind. For example, partly through efforts to preserve Jack pine forests, Kirtland’s warbler has rebounded from a population of a few hundred to 2,000 singing males. And earlier this year, we heard that the Siberian tiger has been making a comeback in several key ecosystems. Some species will not be able to keep up with climate change, but we’ll continue to do all we can, with your help, to restore and protect habitat so that others can.

The battleground is the Klamath River and at stake are the abundant agricultural fields of California’s Central Valley and the lives of thousands upon thousands of endangered Chinook salmon. No pressure.

The instigator of this conflict is ages old and drought is its name. As you can see from the standardized precipitation index map from the National Climatic Data Center, the northern section of the state has been experiencing abnormally dry and moderately dry conditions for the last eight months.

This area of California is home to the nationally designated Wild and Scenic River the Klamath. Flowing 286 miles from Oregon to California, it’s the second longest river in California, making it a major player in watershed and ecosystem health, but it’s perhaps most famous for its seasonal salmon runs. Every fall, adult Chinook salmon leave the salt water of the Pacific Ocean and enter the freshwater of the Klamath — as well as California’s longest river, the Sacramento — to reach their native spawning grounds, where they end their lives as they give birth to new life.

It’s an arduous journey that requires optimal conditions for success. Two of these conditions are temperature and river height. The Klamath needs to be high enough for the salmon to make their run, but also cold enough to protect both the fish and their eggs from baking to death. With this year’s drought, experts fear that neither of these conditions will be met. And the timing couldn’t be worse, as experts also predict an above-average run size of 272,000 adult Chinook salmon.

The solution being proposed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water supplies through government dams, powerplants and canals, is to release up to 62,000 acre-feet — 2.7 billion cubic feet — of cool water from the Trinity Reservoir to supplement Lower Klamath River flows. But, there’s a potential problem. The Trinity also feeds the Clear Creek Tunnel, which, through a number of mechanisms and other locations, eventually feeds the Sacramento River, providing irrigation for the Central Valley’s farmers.

In its required Draft Finding of No Significant Impact of its plan to release water in the Lower Klamath River, the Bureau of Reclamation states, “The expected schedule for water delivery to the Clear Creek Tunnel has already been developed, and the Proposed Action would not affect these exports.” Nevertheless, with a seemingly never-ending drought on their minds, California’s agricultural community is nervous about the proposed plan, and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority has given a 60-day notice of intent to sue if water for Central Valley farmers is used to protect the fish in the Klamath.

What will happen if no action is taken and if the water is too low and too hot? We could see a repeat of 2002 when up to 65,000 of the endangered salmon died from the effects of too little, too warm water.

At American Forests, we know that river conditions in northern California are extremely important to the well-being of communities — human and wildlife alike — which is why in the last decade, our Global ReLeaf program has supported multiple projects in the Klamath basin. In 2012, our most recent project in this area planted 477,200 trees in Klamath National Forest to restore riparian areas affected by the Elk Complex Fire.

Needless to say, we’re very curious to see how this Klamath dilemma plays out.